The Beasley Block in Lower Lonsdale was built in 1904 and predates phone and electricity service in North Vancouver, which arrived about two years later.
The Story
The Beasley Block in North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale was built in 1904 as one of the early surviving storefront buildings in the area. The building was named after land agent Alexander Ferrier Beasley and was designed and constructed by the Western Corporation, a land development company that built many of the early storefronts and homes in Lonsdale.
According to the MONOVA history provided with the story, the Beasley Block was completed before telephone service and electricity existed in North Vancouver. Both services arrived in the following two years.
The space was occupied by McDowell’s Drugstore from the building’s earliest years until the 1970s.
MONOVA notes that the museum is open at 115 West Esplanade in The Shipyards, and that MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver is at 3203 Institute Road in Lynn Valley. The archives are open for drop-ins on Tuesdays and by appointment Monday and Wednesday–Friday, from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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